imago dei

I was thinking the other day about the image of God and I realized that I always thought of it in a singular sense, applied to one person. Humans made in the image of God. I've been thinking about community lately, and a thought struck me that hadn't before. What if all of humanity together, combined, THAT was the image of God.

What if each of us has enough of Him to be recognizable, a family resemblance if you will, but it takes all of humanity together to get a full picture of who God is. If the world was as it should be without wanting or injustice imagine the collected beauty of all of those faces. Imagine the combined talent and genuis and empathy and generosity. A whole world of possiblity necessary just to approximate.

I read Donald Miller's Blue Like Jazz back ion September. I pretty well had to, the book was stalking me. There's one line in the book that I'm still chewing on that says simply this "the biggest lie I've had to overcome is that life is a story about me". I'm reminded of that now. How quick I am to assume that this is my story.